Title Confusion: Difference between revisions

[[Viewers are Morons|Casual viewers]] just can't be bothered to pay the kind of attention it takes to interpret the meaning of a show's title, even if this effort is small. This can lead to some unusual and mistaken notions about key facets of the show.

* [[I Am Not Shazam]]: The work's title is mistaken for the protagonist's name.

* [[Iconic Character Forgotten Title]]: The protagonist's name is mistaken for the work's title.

* [[The Beatles]]' ninth album (dubbed "The White Album") is actually titled "The Beatles." Because of the design, and that its release was 8 years into their fame, most people seeing the cover assume it has no printed title.

* The title of the TV show ''[[Lost]]'' refers to how the greatly flawed characters are all metaphorically lost, wandering through their broken lives, before becoming physically lost on a mysterious island. This physical act of being lost is only the manner in which the series' themes and motifs are played; "getting rescued" is not the focus of the show and in fact {{spoiler|half the characters are rescued halfway through the series and then ''willingly return to the island'' three years later}}.

** It was intentionally marketed as (and began as) a series about people physically lost on a mysterious island.

* One version of [[Richard III]] was retitled simply ''Richard'' in the US because many people assumed it was third in a series, and, not having seen the first two, didn't bother to see it.

* When Hal Roach began his series of child-centered comedy shorts in the 1920s, his titles included ''Roach's Rascals'' and ''The Terrible Ten''. But because the first short was titled ''Our Gang'', the public started referring to them as "Our Gang comedies". By the time MGM took over production in 1938, ''Our Gang'' had become the official title. The series' [[Syndication Title]], ''[[The Little Rascals]]'', wasn't popular until the mid-1960s, when King World sold the shorts to TV stations.

* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was originally titled simply ''Enterprise'', to the confusion of fans.

* After the success of ''[[Star Wars: Clone Wars]]'', the animated series set between episode II and III, Lucasfilm decided to create a new animated series set in the same time period called ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Star Wars:]]'' '''''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|The]]''''' ''[[Star Wars: The Clone Wars|Clone Wars]]''. Enough said.

** Similarly, there was a "Star Wars: Clone Wars" comic series long before the production of either television series. It was then followed up with "Clone Wars Adventures" then simply "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in turn followed up by "Star Wars The Clone Wars" graphic novel series. [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Clone_Wars_%28disambiguation%29 Throw in a book series and several video games using only the words "Clone Wars" as their titles] and you'd think someone would be able to think to at least subtitle them. Some people even mistakenly refer to ''[[Attack of the Clones]]'' as "The Clone Wars".

* ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' originally didn't include the series name, [[Call of Duty]]; the original ''Modern Warfare'' was ''[[Call of Duty]] 4: [[Modern Warfare]].'' When it was discovered that the absence of the series name led to fans being less aware of ''Modern Warfare 2,'' it was added back on. The special editions of the game still omit it on their box art.

* The "Doom/Quake with a crossbow" series: ''[[Heretic]]''; ''[[Hexen]]''; ''Hexen II''; ''Heretic II''.

* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'' is usually referred to as "Ned's Declassified" or just "Ned's"- however, the TV listings grid in Gannett newspapers lists it as "School", seemingly picking the most confusingly generic word from the title...

* Because of the confusing nature of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series (for more information, see above), each game can have multitudes of abbreviations such as JKII, JO, JKII:JO, SW:JO, DFIII.

** ''Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!'', called just ''Slapstick''.

* ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'''s first expansion is referred to as both "Mask of '''t'''he Betrayer" and "Mask of '''T'''he Betrayer" (The Betrayer is a character's title, so it's an exception to normal grammar rules). Even the game itself is split when using "The Betrayer" vs "the Betrayer", but the newer instances (such as the gold and platinum releases) favor capital T.

* Comics, especially one-shots suffering from [[Colon Cancer]], sometimes have a different title in the indicia than on the cover.

* ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' for the Vectrex is identified on the title screen as ''Star Trek - The Game''. It's a video game, not a motion picture.

* There were some, only going by title and not having read a synopsis or seeing a trailer, thought that ''[[28 Days Later]]'' was a sequel to ''[[28 Days]]''. ''28 Days Later'' was about a zombie outbreak, ''28 Days'' (no "later") was [[Sandra Bullock]] playing a woman in a rehab program. It didn't help that ''28 Days Later'' was released 2 years after ''28 Days'', about the expected time for a sequel to be produced.

* Some people assume that [[The Beatles]]' "Revolution 9" is the song that has the lyrics "You say you want a revolution..."; they're actually thinking of "Revolution 1" (or "Revolution," the B-side to "Hey Jude"). "Revolution 9" is the weird sound collage with the voice repeating, "Number nine... Number nine... Number nine..." (which notoriously sounds like "Turn me on, dead man" when played backwards).

* ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' and ''[[30 Rock|Thirty Rock]]'', made all the more confusing by the fact that the former's title is commonly shortened to "''3rd Rock''". ''3rd Rock'' is about [[Alien Among Us|aliens living on Earth]], i.e. the third planet (rock) from the sun. ''30 Rock'' is a [[Work Com]] set at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, otherwise known as "30 Rock". Amusingly, they're both [[NBC]] [[Sitcom|Sit Coms]].

* In ''[[Alice in Wonderland|Through the Looking-Glass]]'', the White Knight explains to Alice that, though the name of his song is called "Haddocks' Eyes," its name really is "The Aged Aged Man." However, that's not what the song is ''called'', which is "Ways and Means"; and, finally, the song itself is "A-sitting On a Gate."